Slavophiles

The Slavophiles were a conservative faction of politics in the Russian Empire that originated in Moscow in the 1830s. Aleksey Khomyakov, its most important ideologue, claimed that Russia had its own distinct way, and criticized the reforms of Peter the Great and Catherine the Great during the 18th century. The Slavophile faction opposed the influence of Western Europe on Russia, and they resorted to bigotry at times; in 1863, during the January Uprising in Poland, the Slavophiles used anti-Polish sentiment to create national unity in Russia. After the Emancipation Reform of 1861 was passed by Czar Alexander II of Russia, the power of the Slavophiles decreased, but Slavophilia would have a major impact on the czarist regimes of Alexander III of Russia and Nicholas II of Russia, as well as on White emigres after the Russian Revolution and the Communist Party of the Russian Federation after the 1990s.